1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1943–44 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Ohio State	10	–	2	.833	14	–	7	.667
Iowa	9	–	3	.750	14	–	4	.778
Wisconsin	9	–	3	.750	12	–	9	.571
Northwestern	8	–	4	.667	12	–	7	.632
Purdue	8	–	4	.667	11	–	10	.524
Illinois	5	–	7	.417	11	–	9	.550
Michigan	5	–	7	.417	8	–	10	.444
Minnesota	2	–	10	.167	7	–	14	.333
Indiana	2	–	10	.167	7	–	15	.318
Chicago	0	–	8	.000	1	–	19	.050

The 1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

March 1, 1943, changed the future of Fighting Illini men's basketball when the team was broken up due to all five starters from back-to-back Big Ten Conference championships heading to active duty in the armed forces. The group who left, known as the Whiz Kids, consisted of 21-year-old All-America forward Andy Phillip and 20-year-olds Ken Menke, Gene Vance, Jack Smiley and Art Mathisen. Phillip went on to become a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Four of the five, minus Mathisen, returned to Illinois and tried to recapture the glory for one more season in 1946–47 after the war ended, but the chemistry had changed as well as their talent. Illinois went 14–6.

The 1943–44 season, however, was a struggle for head coach Doug Mills, as it was the second worst season of his career. The overall record was 11 wins and 9 losses with a conference mark of 5 and 7. The team finished with a 6 - 4 record at home and a .500 record on the road at 5 - 5. The Illini returned only one player from the 1942-43 season, Gordon Horton, who wasn't even a starter, which meant the entire lineup was made up of rookie/unproven players. The starting lineup consisted of Walton Kirk, Howard Judson, Ray DeMoulin, Bob Morton, Don Delaney and Gordon Gillespie.

Roster

No	Player	Position	Class	Hometown
4	Ray DeMoulin	Forward	Freshman	Mulberry Grove, Illinois
5	Gordon Gillespie	Center	Freshman	Chicago, Illinois
6	Stan Patrick	Guard	Senior	Chicago, Illinois
7	Don Delaney	Center	Sophomore	Sacramento, California
8	Howard Judson	Guard/Forward	Freshman	Hebron, Illinois
9	Walt Kirk	Guard	Sophomore	Mt. Vernon, Illinois
10	Gordon Hortin	Guard	Junior	Evansville, Indiana
11	Jake Staab	Forward	Sophomore	Chillicothe, Illinois
12	Jim Seyler	Guard	Sophomore	Champaign, Illinois
13	Bob Morton	Guard/Forward	Freshman	Elgin, Illinois
14	Richard Foley	Guard	Freshman	Paris, Illinois
15	William Eddleman	Forward	Sophomore	Anna, Illinois
16	Kermit Knetsch	Center	Sophomore	Paw Paw, Illinois
17	John Larson	Center	Sophomore	Sioux City, Iowa
18	Lou Possehl	Forward	Senior	Chicago, Illinois
19	Leo Gedvillas	Guard	Sophomore	Spring Valley, Illinois
20	Bob White	Forward	Sophomore
21	Morris Dolan	Center	Sophomore
22	Lee Stickler	Guard	Sophomore	Alton, Illinois
23	Raymond Fregan	Guard	Sophomore	Brookfield, Illinois
24	Donald Sudkamp	Guard	Freshman	Champaign, Illinois

Head Coach: Douglas Mills (8th year at Illinois) ^[1]

Record

Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Location	Attendance
December 4, 1943	Alumni	53–35	Win	Champaign, IL	3,041
December 7, 1943	Detroit	56–25	Win	Champaign, IL	2,011
December 11, 1943	Great Lakes	44–52	Loss	Chicago, IL	12,000
December 18, 1943	Missouri	39–29	Win	Columbia, MO	-
December 20, 1943	Kentucky	43–41	Win	Champaign, IL	2,719
December 29, 1943	Great Lakes	64–51	Win	Champaign, IL	4,429
January 3, 1944	Wisconsin	45–43	Win	Madison, WI	-
January 7, 1944	Wisconsin	38–43	Loss	Champaign, IL	4,660
January 8, 1944	Michigan	45–52	Loss	Ann Arbor, MI	-
January 15, 1944	University of Chicago	69–32	Win	Chicago, IL	300
January 21, 1944	Iowa	51–62	Loss	Iowa City, IA	-
January 22, 1944	Iowa	44–53	Loss	Iowa City, IA	-
February 7, 1944	Kentucky	40–51	Loss	Lexington, KY	-
February 11, 1944	Northwestern	29–42	Loss	Champaign, IL	2,834
February 12, 1944	DePaul	45–33	Win	Chicago, IL	-
February 18, 1944	Ohio State	41–52	Loss	Champaign, IL	2,577
February 19, 1944	Ohio State	53–54	Loss	Champaign, IL	2,717
February 25, 1944	Northwestern	50–47	Win	Evanston, IL
March 3, 1944	Minnesota	50–32	Win	Champaign, IL	2,420
March 4, 1944	Minnesota	53–27	Win	Champaign, IL	2,404

Bold Italic connotes conference game

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Points
Stan Patrick	20	97	46	240
Walt Kirk	20	84	55	223
Howard Judson	20	74	12	160
Gordon Gillespie	20	20	26	55
Jimmy Seyler	20	18	13	49
Dick Foley	6	20	8	48
Don Delaney	11	18	6	42
Jake Staab	12	14	12	40
Robert Morton	16	13	3	29
Ray DeMoulin	12	11	1	23
Gordon Hortin	11	4	2	10
Kermit Knetsch	6	4	1	9
Lou Possehl	7	3	2	8
Jack Larson	6	2	1	5
Donald Sudkamp	3	2	0	4
Bob White	4	1	1	3
Leo Gedvilas	1	1	0	2
Lee Stickler	2	0	0	0
Raymond Fregan	1	0	0	0
Maurice Dolan	1	0	0	0
Carl Bontemps	1	0	0	0

^[2]

Awards and honors

Walt Kirk
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1944)
Stan Patrick
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[3]

References

[1] All-Time Illini Rosters

[2] Season Stats

[3] List of MVPs

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)
Rivalries	Indiana Iowa Missouri Northwestern
Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek 1960s slush fund scandal
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics